Bruce wrote:
> I have made the assertion before that: If a page validates, odds are that
> it is accessible! In light of recent discussions, I think that this point
> warrants further promotion. Before that though, it should be investigate
> more. To this end, I challenge members of this list to do a little
> hunting...
I think your assertion is false. Validation is a good first step
towards accessibility, but it's still just one step, and it's not
the ONLY first step. either.
> Can anyone cite a URL for a live site that formally validates as HTML 4 but
> does NOT meet the Priority 1 checkpoints of the WCAG?
BTW, note that valid HTML is a priority 2 checkpoint.
What follows is a list, based on the HTML Writers Guild's accessibility
policy's descriptions, of how you can break priority 1 checkpoints
using valid HTML 4.
1. Provide text equivalents for non-text elements.
<IMG SRC="topbanner.gif" ALT="[please download this image]">
<!--
Where "topbanner.gif" is an image with the name of the site on
it and contains information that is not present elsewhere on the
page.
-->
2. Don't rely solely upon color.
Eastbound trains are marked in <FONT COLOR="red">red</FONT>,
westbound in <FONT COLOR="blue">blue</FONT>.
<FONT COLOR="red">10:30</FONT><BR>
<FONT COLOR="blue">10:45</FONT>
<!--
This problem would also exist if CSS were used.
-->
3. Identify language changes.
[left as an exercise for the reader]
4. Make sure pages are usable without style sheets.
<STYLE TYPE="text/css">
.east { font-color: blue; font-weight: bold; }
.west { font-color; red; text-decoration: underline; }
</STYLE>
The eastbound trains are indicated like
<SPAN CLASS="east">this</SPAN>, and the westbound like
<SPAN CLASS="west">this</SPAN>.
The rest are left as an exercise for the user; but already, our valid
HTML snippets have failed the HWG's accessibility standards, which are
based on WCAG 1.0.
--
Kynn Bartlett <kynn@idyllmtn.com> http://www.kynn.com/
Chief Technologist, Idyll Mountain Internet http://www.idyllmtn.com/
Become AWARE of Web Accessibility! http://aware.hwg.org/